Avalon Shelter Seeks Funds To Replace Grant

WILLIAMSBURG — It and other Peninsula agencies providing transitional housing saw such funding go to zero.

A local domestic-violence shelter has sent an emergency fundraising plea to its donors to replace a six-figure federal grant that wasn't renewed.

Avalon provides transitional housing to about 300 women and children each year.

It sent out the requests last week, after learning that it would lose a $108,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Three other Peninsula agencies that previously received HUD homeless-assistance grants also weren't renewed during an application process last year. They were Transitions Family Violence Services in Hampton, the Warwick Single Room Occupancy hotel in Newport News and the Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board. All four agencies had received HUD money through a joint application by the Greater Virginia Peninsula Continuum of Care.

That's an umbrella organization designed to pool the region's eligibility for money.